Canadian death metallers KATAKLYSM plan on taking most of 2005 off to write their next studio album, according to their latest newsletter. "[Take our time to write an album is] something we have never done before," said KATAKLYSM vocalist Maurizio Iacono. "Even new drummer Martin Maurais only had one month to put all his drum tracks on 'Serenity In Fire'! So with 4 albums out in 5 years, which have all outdone each other and all have been highly acclaimed, we wanna make sure the next one will be up to par. Hell, we want it to be our 'Masters of Puppets', our 'Reign in Blood'!!!...

"Unlike [what was suggested in] previous statements, the album will not be self-titled. I have a killer title for it and will unleash it when the time comes.

"The reason we are talking about the next album already is because we have so many ideas floating around and the writing level is peaking right now. Brutality is flowing to the next level, so we just wanna start putting shit together and keep working on it 'till it's perfect. We are still extremely satisfied with 'Serenity In Fire', we just feel we have some great momentum and wanna keep moving forward."

With regards to the band's touring plans, Iacono said, "The band is playing for sure in late August at the Up From The Ground Festival in Germany. We will be headlining Saturday the 28th. This will be the only show of the summer for KATAKLYSM. We will debut round 2 of the 'Serenity in Fire' touring campaign this fall. We will start with a massive headlining European tour in October, including a stop to Iceland and followed by another North American tour, if everything goes according to plan."